Sending short messages SMS through the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) network or the UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service) network is known, the mobile telephone network thereby comprises a Short Message Service Center (SMSC) through which SMS are sent from a sender mobile terminal, or from internet by means of a web interface, to another recipient mobile terminal, the SMSC thereby receiving the SMS and the recipient mobile terminal number (International Mobile Station ISDN Number (MSISDN)) in order to request information on the location of the recipient mobile terminal from a Home Location Register (HLR). Access to the HLR is carried out through an STP (Signal Transfer Point) node, such that from the recipient terminal MSISDN, the HLR obtains the recipient International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) and Visitor Location Register (VLR) in which the recipient mobile terminal is registered. The VLR register indicates the area in which the recipient mobile terminal is registered.
The HLR responds sending a message of these obtained recipient mobile terminal data to the SMSC, which transmits a new order to send the SMS to the VLR belonging to the obtained date so that the VLR sends the. SMS to the recipient mobile terminal. Once the SMS is received in the recipient mobile terminal, the latter confirms receipt of the SMS, and in case of not being available at that time, the SMSC receives confirmation that the mobile terminal is not available, it thereby stores the SMS for a certain, pre-established time period, for its subsequent automatic sending when the recipient mobile terminal is available, as long as the established time period has not elapsed since, once the time has elapsed, the SMS is deleted.
It is also possible to send short messages to an external application from the SMSC and by direct connection with the latter, using protocols such as SMPP (Short Message Point to Point protocol).
In any case, no copy of the short message remains in any node of the network, but rather it can only be visualized in the recipient mobile.
By means of the described structure, the subscriber has no way of accessing his/her messages if the network does not automatically send them, he/she does not even have a way of knowing if he/she has messages pending delivery.
In Spanish patent application number 9901879, belonging to the same holder as the present invention, a short message receipt, storage and sending system is disclosed, comprising independent SMS storage means where said SMS are stored for their subsequent sending to the recipient mobile terminal, and all this transparently for the sending mobile terminal subscriber, such that an intermediate short message storage means is obtained between the SMSC and the one used in the network, but there is no formula in the network for a subscriber to be able to voluntarily store the messages he/she has received or created in his/her mobile terminal, or created in any other application permitting this. This new function may be very useful, given the limitation mobile terminals have, and since this is the only means that subscribers have of storing their messages, i.e. there is no alternative to the mobile terminal and with many more messages than what can be voluntarily stored in his/her terminal, and which subsequently can be accessed or resent to an external application or to another mobile terminal.